Thread by @ChrisO_wiki

1/ The Russian Army has reportedly recruited thousands of prisoners, including murderers, rapists and habitual thieves, following the exclusion of the Wagner Group from recruiting in prisons. A commander says their mindset makes it "more pleasant to work with them." ⬇️

2/ According to the prisoners' rights group 'Russia Behind Bars', the Russian Ministry of Defence has recruited more than 15,000 people directly from penal colonies. This follows the banning earlier this year of Wagner's previously extensive prison recruitment campaign.

3/ Russian war correspondents have recently drawn attention to the large number of prisoners serving in the 71st Guards Motorized Rifle Regiment. One of its deputy commanders is a 38-year-old man known as 'Tambov' (shown above) who was previously serving a 26-year sentence.

4/ Tambov says that MOD recruiters persuaded 373 people from his prison colony to volunteer to go to war and "redeem themselves to their homeland." 127 of them went to Ukraine with pardons, six-month service contracts, MOD salaries and the opportunity to receive state awards.

5/ According to Tambov, "there is no better and more loyal soldier than an ex-convict in the army now". He says this is because while most soldiers are fighting for a paycheck, prisoners are fighting to be able to go home and "fix their past".

6/ His view is supported by Oleg Panchurin, deputy commander of the 71st regiment. He says that prisoners "have a more militarized mindset than the mobilised," "they have a killer's look in their eyes," and "it is more pleasant to work with them."

7/ The Russian government is increasingly loosening the criteria for military recruitment, so that even those convicted of heinous crimes can now join. Its new recruits include prisoners whom even Wagner will not touch, such as convicted rapists.

8/ Tambov himself – real name Pavel Alyokhin – murdered a 91-year-old pensioner while working as a taxi driver. After driving her home, he learned that she lived on her own and kept her savings at home. He hit her over the head with a bottle and strangled her with a towel.

9/ He stole her savings of more than a million rubles ($12,000) and eventually lost most of them while gambling. He was arrested three weeks later and was sentenced to 26 years – his sixth criminal conviction. His previous convictions included rape and gun-running charges.

10/ Other men from the regiment, who were featured on the propaganda TV show Soloviev Live, include individuals convicted of serious assault and repeated thefts.

11/ Commenting on the criminal records of the men under his hand, Pachurin comments: "Understandably, everyone stumbles for some reason in life. For different reasons. Anyone could have been in their shoes."

12/ As the independent Russian news platform Verstka notes, however, such men are serving illegally under the terms of Russian law. Those serving sentences for 'serious' and 'especially serious' offences are supposed to be excluded. However, this may soon change.

13/ A bill introduced on 31 May by Andrey Kartapolov, chairman of the Duma Defense Committee, will allow those convicted of serious crimes (but not for rape, terrorism, treason and so on) to be recruited. It's already been approved in its first reading.

14/ However, it seems that Russian MOD recruiters are ignoring even the current stricter criteria. It's likely that Russia's pressing need for military manpower is being given a higher priority than any petty legal restrictions. /end

Source:
verstka.media/novye-gvardejc…